Thursday, April 10, 2008

Palestinian Children Denied Mail

First of all: Ghaith al-Omari. Could he be any uglier? Did anyone consider a phone interview? He's like a SNL parody of himself.

This unbearably long Charlie Rose clip is about Bush's visit to Palestine in which he gave a speech recognizing Palestine as a sovereign nation and urging Israel to do the same. Audio of that speech here but beware- it's partnered with propaganda images and music. Dennis Ross, author of "Statecraft" says in this video that Bush's Annapolis meeting was more stagecraft than statecraft. As the months slip away, it becomes more and more clear that this is the case.

Case in point: the United States Postal Service. They do not ship to Palestine. They do not even have Palestine in their computer system. If Bush and his administration was really interested in promoting the idea of Palestine as a sovereign nation, wouldn't they start by calling it one?

Private shipping companies have various ways of designating the Palestinian territories, such as FedEx, which ships to "Palestine Autonomous." DHL ships to "Israel, Israel (West Bank), and Israel (Gaza)". UPS, like its acronymic cousin, ships only to Israel. And it's not as if USPS is purely interested in condensing their list or keeping things simple. They ship to such obscure places like Anjouan (Comoros), Christmas Island (Kiribati), and Pitcairn Island which has a population of 50 (inbred descendants of the mutineers of the HMS Bounty). The USPS also recognizes antiquated names like Eire (Ireland), Hashemite Kingdom (Jordan), and Persia (Iran).